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Receive
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March 2001
ISBN:
1-58367-032-7
$22.95 paper
ISBN:
1-58367-033-5
$55.00 cloth
384 pp
History/Latin America
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RAG-TAGS, SCUM,
RIFF-RAFF, AND COMMIES
The U.S. Intervention in the Dominican
Republic,
1965-1966
Eric Thomas
Chester
In April 1965, a popular rebellion in the Dominican Republic toppled the
remnants of the U.S. backed Trujillo dictatorship thus setting the stage for
the master tinkers of America's Cold War machine. In this groundbreaking study,
Eric Thomas Chester carefully reconstructs the events that followed into a
thriller of historical sweep. The result is a stunning portrait of how
President Lyndon Johnson used the C.I.A., the Pentagon, and the State
Department to suppress the rebellion and, ultimately, orchestrate events
surrounding the national election to insure an outcome favorable to U.S.
interests.
Eric Thomas Chester explains how the U.S. invasion followed in the tradition
of “gunboat diplomacy” and was a consequence of superpower Cold War
rivalry. Moreover, the intervention sent a clear signal that the United States
would not tolerate any threat to its dominant position in Latin America.
Confronted with the likelihood of a rebel victory, President Johnson authorized
a massive military intervention, thus overturning Franklin Roosevelt's Good
Neighbor Policy and initiating an era of direct armed conflict in the region.
The result was that by early May, with more than thirty thousand troops
deployed, there was a greater U.S. military presence in the Dominican Republic
than in South Vietnam.
In this fascinating account, Chester makes extensive use of recently
declassified documents, as well as the holdings of private archives, including
uncensored telephone transcripts involving the president and his closest and
most influential advisors. His nuanced study of the workings of covert and
diplomatic initiatives provides a thorough analysis of U.S. foreign policy in
Latin America.
Table of Contents
Prologue: The Dominican Crisis: An Overview
1. Prelude to Revolution
2. The Uprising Triumphant
3. Intervention and Quarantine
4. Applying Pressure
5. Tightening the Screws
6. The Bundy Mission: Negotiating an Agreement
7. The Bundy Mission: Undermining an Agreement
8. The Bunker Mission
9. The 1966 Election: Fraud and Intimidation
10. Rationales for Intervention
Epilogue: Impasse, Integration, and Diaspora
Appendix: The 1966 Election: A Detailed Analysis
Notes
Biographical Glossary
Organizational Glossary
Bibliography
index
About the Author
ERIC
THOMAS CHESTER has taught economics at the University of
Massachusetts in Boston and San Francisco State University. A committed
activist for more than thirty years, he was vice-presidential candidate for the
Socialist Party in 1996, and is an active member of the Industrial Workers of
the World (IWW). He is the author of Socialists and the Ballot Box: A
Historical Analysis (1985) and Covert Network: Progressives, the
International Rescue Committee, and the CIA (1995).
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